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It appears like Joseph Goodman found his lightning in a bottle with the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. Not only is the core rulebook a tome of much awesomeness, but the adventures from both Goodman Games and the Third Part Publishers have been strong right out of the starting box. Attack of the Frawgs from Thick Skull Adventures is no exception.
Surprisingly, this is no dungeon crawl. It is man versus beasts in the Wilds around Dead Goblin Lake. Yep, Attack of the Frawgs is primarily an outdoor, or dare I say it, wilderness adventure. I had assumed both by nature of the name - Dungeon Crawl Classics - and the first few adventures from Goodman Games that dungeons were going to be the be all. Thankfully, they are not. There is a place for wilderness adventures in the DCC realm of adventures, but they are plotted out similarly to dungeon adventures in the DCC system. I suppose this makes sense, as experience is earned by "encounter", not by enemies felled or gold found.
The adventure itself looks to be a fun one. I like the idea of townsfolk rising up to protect their own against evil invading their lands and lively hood. I'm also pleasantly pleased with how well the wilderness adventure appears to plot out. I'm very tempted to run this in tomorrow night's game with my party of newly levels 1st level PCs. (edit - ran it and it was a blast)
The cover art is great, the interior art is fine and the maps are very serviceable. The maps aren't like those in the various DCC Adventures from Goodman Games, but they are easy on the eyes and following them is a breeze.
Attack of the Frawgs is an excellent addition to the DCC assortment of adventures.
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I really do like the Ubiquity RPG system. I think it accomplishes much of what Savage Worlds can accomplish without a lot of the system weight that get's attached. Lets call Ubiquity my favorite system that I've yet to play.
Leagues of Adventure is the latest game to use the Ubiquity RPG Engine. Notice I said "game", not sourcebook. Unlike Savage Worlds, which has a core rules set and source books that feed off that, games that use the Ubiquity system are just that - stand alone games.
That can be both good and bad. It's great if you want to pick up a single set of rules and run with it all in one package. Not so great if you are getting the same core rules restated for each genre that you pick up. It is, admittedly, a small quibble, as the Ubiquity core rules are much lighter than those that constitute Savage Worlds.
Leagues of Adventures covers the late Victorian Age. It is not an era I have much experience with, either in fiction or gaming - Sherlock Holmes is about as close as I usually come. Thankfully, LoA comes with extensive write ups of time lines, important historical personalities and world leaders that enable even a Victorian Novice like myself enough pieces to drop in front of the players to make it sound legit. Very well done and extremely well researched. I enjoyed this section as both a gamer and a former history major ;)
Of course, as fun as the historical Victorian is, Leagues of Adventure takes things just a little bit further:
In Leagues of Adventure the boundaries of science are being pushed far beyond their historical limits. While hardly commonplace, mole machines, airships, and even time-traveling machines do exist. Some are already in the hands of governments and Leagues, while others remain the personal property of their slightly mad inventors.
Therein lies the hook of LoA - it's Jules Verne and than some. Our history and just a tad more. Victorian with pulp. I like it.
Would I run this before Hollow Earth Expedition? I don't know? I'm definitely more grounded personally in the Pulp Era of the 30's, but League of Adventures certainly gives the tools to allow one to bridge the gap.
Did I mention the extensive bookmarking of the PDF? Very well done.
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For those of you following at home, the short adventure included in Issue #1 of the Manor is what I used to kick off my sandboxie ACKS campaign about 2 months ago. In a week my party should be arriving at their destination, and I already see that I'll be using the latest issue of the Manor when they do.
Hugo's Healing Potions will most assuredly get used in my current campaign, maybe as soon as next week. I love the personalities that are presented, and the table of random customers / events can easily be used elsewhere (much like the Toys For the Sandbox series). When one article has multiple uses, you know it's damn good.
Smuggler's Inn has a unique hook. The setting local is unique too, and might require planning ahead to get the players there, but that's rarely a problem. Very interesting personalities here too, as well as a list of new magic items, one of which I think I have a player who would kill to get their hands on it. I may yoke that for a party quest at some point.
Strange Things You May Find Under the Cot is a random list of what you may find under the bed your are sleeping in in an Inn. Some of these "things" can turn into adventure seed in and of themselves.
Poetry Slam: Orc appears on the inside back cover, not the regular PDF. Let me explain. Tim has provided both a regular PDF version, and a "print out double sided and fold and staple" version, in case you want a physical version to love and to hold. The Orc poetry appears on the PDF for the cover, inside rear. Hope that's clearer now.
So far Tim is batting 2 for 2. Very impressive. (and I knew I recognized Matt Jackson's map work)
Almost forgot, the Manor is systemless, so it is easy to use with any Fantasy RPG system you are looking to use.
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I've been dying to talk about AL-1, Bone Hoard of the Dancing Horror (by Daniel Bishop) for nearly two weeks now. How can that be when it was just released this morning? Purple Duck Games was nice enough to send me a preview copy of Bone Hoard of the Dancing Horror to peek at and it was damn good. I just wasn't able to talk about it. Grrrr!
First things first - it's a 2nd level adventure, and at the moment the only second level adventure released for the DCC RPG. Which means I probably won't have a chance to run it until September or later, but that is fine.
The map is laid out like a classic fantasy RPG dungeon map, and it looks great. I should mention at this point that there is a copy of the Referee's map at the end of the adventure, but this time without the rom numbers. The unnumbered map is also included as a hi-res stand alone JPG. Yep, Purple Duck Games understands what is useful to enhance a game session being run online via one of the various VTTs or even Google+ Hangouts. It's little things like this that mean a lot.
Did I mention that the PDF is bookmarked? Unlike larger PDFs, this wasn't needed, but again is a nice touch and certainly useful for navigation.
I am going to make one small suggestion for the future - maybe a second copy of the GM's map can be added in the next release (this suggestion applies to pretty much all adventure publishers). It would make reading the PDF that much easier if I could have a copy of the map and a copy of the PDF side by side on my monitor as I read through the adventure. If you think about it, this is why the early TSR adventures were printed on the inside of the removable adventure cover - so the map and the text could be read side by side. Just a thought.
Back to the adventure. There are a handful of magic items. Nearly all are single use, and maybe not even that many uses. Still, a party that perseveres to the end should be amply rewarded. Well, maybe not amply, but rewarded on some level ;)
As for the adversaries, they range from strength in numbers to damn dangerous on their own, which is one of the reasons I like the DCC RPG so much - everything can be a threat.
I'd love to delve deeper into the adventure itself - it is a wizard's workshop and you can guess that much of the fun is related to that fact, but I'd hate to give away a spoiler. I suspect it will be a decent challenge to a 2nd level DCC RPG party and I look forward to running it.
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I've long been a fan of Cthulhu Mythos in my Fantasy RPG gaming. It keeps players honest ;) The creature that is the main event in People of the Pit is certainly mythos inspired, and that is a good thing, as it is pulled of perfectly.
DCC #68 breaks with recent tradition, as it is 32 pages long (30 pages after front and back cover are removed from the count) and I can easily see this taking a session and a half or even two to complete. You do get a nice amount of gaming for your investment.
I'm trying to think of what I can say about People of the Pit without giving too much away. Lets see, there are deformed cultists, there are some new creatures for the PCs to kill (or be killed by), there is the tentacled beast on the cover (I think the cover fails to covey the actual terror this tentacle beast is). Oh, and a TPK is certainly possible. I don't want to say likely, but more likely than the previous adventures in the series or in the DCC RPG book. It will certainly weed out the men from the boys. Or women from the girls.
There are some player handouts. I loves me some player handouts. I'm waiting for a DCC adventure with a players handout booklet like the old Tomb of Horrors. There, my suggestion. I'll take credit for it when someone runs with the idea ;)
If I have one complaint, its the art. As far as I can tell, there are no prints available for any of it! It's not like I'm going to print a piece of with my inkjet and hang it on my wall. I want professional art prints damn it! The player's handout for area 4-9 NEEDS to be a print. The maps need to be available in prints. Joseph, how many peasants do I have to sacrifice to the Funnel before we can get some of this art work available as prints?
Did I mention it is a fully bookmarked PDF? Well done.
People of the Pit is a 1st Level Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG adventure. It's a great piece to put your funnel survivors through from DCC #67 - Sailors on the Starless Sea. Well, so long as they aren't too worried about surviving to level 2 ;)
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Someone else said that Dice & Glory was a combination of D20 gaming and the Palladium RPG system. I think the more accurate description would be an unholy mashup of the two... I'm not so sure if I'd want to run this as is, but I certainly could steal stuff that would fit well in numerous OSR games.
I mean think about it, any game that starts it's Insanity & Addiction section on the 14th page of a game that numbers over 200 pages must have something worth borrowing.
Feats look to be inspired by the OGL, and the skills are definitely Palladium in flavor. Combat is definitely inspired by Palladium. Looking at the combat section, I don't see S.D.C. or M.D.C.. Thank the gods for that ;)
It can cover most any type of setting, from fantasy to sic-fi. I wonder if anyone has reskinned RIFTS with Dice & Glory?
The artwork will not win any prizes. It's better then what I can produce, but it's serviceable at it's best.
It's definitely playable, and for someone looking for a crunch heavy mashup of OGL and Palladium influences (it is definitely more than just this, but the influence is heavy), this could be what you are looking for. Me? I'm going to mine it for stuff to use in my current campaign.
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(originally posted at tenkarstavern.com)
I'm simply amazed that The Abandoned Mine is the 19th release in the Toys For the Sandbox release. There's a few reasons for that amazement. Let me count the ways:
I'm amazed that the series has hit 19 issues, as I've missed the last few between The Grumpy Dwarf riffing on D&D 5e and my own preparations for my recently kicked off ACKS campaign.
I'm also amazed that Quinn Conklin can keep on coming up with new and interesting locations and events, let alone 6 hooks or possibilities and 3 twists for each one. That's one hell of a lot of creative juice. Do each of the 18 combinations work for me? No, but each release has had several possible combinations that got my mind going in many different directions on how to flesh them out. This issue is no exception.
I'm also amazed that we've now reached the point where it's 10 pages of brain storming goodness. The first release was a mere 4 pages.
The backstory of the Abandoned Mine is excellent, as is the main hook. Uncovering an ancient evil and the various possible effects set up most of the hooks. In theory, you could even use more than one hook to set this up and really reinforce the backstory that is given.
I already know where this is being placed in my sandbox. I'll be changing the type of valuable being mined to fit my setting, but that is mere window dressing. There is a lot of "meat and potatoes" to be found in The Abandoned Mine, and I think I can squeeze at least two uses other than the main one. I really love the options available.
NPCs are nicely detailed, even more so than usual, as the extra page count allows for the extra detail. A Rumor Table and an Encounter Table round out the current release. Wait, I forgot the section on items. Nice. Cursed. Different.
All is not prefect. I like the map, and as it is a mine map, it is shown vertically, which is a nice change. Regretfully, due to the needs to fit the map properly on the page (I'm guessing but I'm pretty sure none the less), the map is 90 degrees off kilter. I can't turn my monitor 90 degrees, so I'll need to print this one out. I was probably going to do so when using this in game anyway ;)
Also, the price has increased to $1.99. It's still an excellent value for the investment and the extra page length is definitely put to good use.
Did I mention it comes in both print friendly and regular version in the same package? Course not! I forgot since it's new. Oh, and very handy.
Yes, I really do like this series.
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There are your standard fantasy RPG settings and then you have settings like The Horrendous Heap of Sixteen Cities, which is anything but standard. There is no way my own words will do it justice, so I'll borrow Dylan's:
Extending above a haze of reeking steam rise sixteen peaks of garbage magically transported from sixteen different cities. It spreads, like an ever-growing fungus, across the landscape, encompassing and corrupting nearly fifty square miles. Hideous flies, crows, and vultures circle the piles, perpetually avoiding garbage falling from magical portals thousands of feet in the air. Giant rats, skunks, maggots, and other manner of repugnant beasts scuttle about the surface, surviving off the offal. Underneath, giant worms crawl through the debris. Periodic explosions reform the horizon. Some cultures call it “Sheoal”, others “Kol Katta”. All, however, use the common vernacular “The Heap”. And everywhere its name is synonymous with “Hell”.
As you can see, far from standard. Also, far from large. It is basically a micro-setting - an area to be placed within a larger setting. As such, and due to the fairly unique and special nature of the HHoSC!, this is something that you will probably need to plant seeds of knowledge fairly early in the campaign. PCs would have heard of something this unique, at least as a legend or rumor, so to spring it on your players out of the blue would be horribly unfair. Still, nothing will truly prepare them for experiencing the real thing.
The HHoSC! is very much a sandbox, even if its a small sandbox, and it provides the GM with a number of hooks to get the party to (and into) the HHoSC! It is appropriate for most levels, although low level characters will have to tread very carefully.
This isn't a plop and drop type of adventure, but if you prepare in advance, it should give your party a unique and fun experience.
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I must say that Pinnacle / Studio 2 certainly know how to put beautiful RPG books together. The art in the Deadland's Reloaded Player's Guide is nothing short of amazing - everything evokes the atmosphere of the setting. You are given express permission to print the PDF for personal use, but the ink cost would be insane. Still, its a nice gesture.
From a technical standpoint, the Deadland Reloaded Player's Guide PDF is aces. Not only is it bookmarked, but the Table of Contents is hyperlinked. Huzzah!
As for the contents of the book, we get the setting background from the player character's POV. It should be enough to get most players IN character. Character generation (including new hindrances and edges), gear and goodies, unique setting rules... it's all there. Some GMs may feel there is too much there for the players, but as this is an alternate history setting, and the PCs are living it, I think it's perfectly fine to bring the players (mostly) up to speed.
This coupled with the Gamemaster's Guide and the core Savage Worlds rules are all that are needed to run a Deadlands game (and from what I've heard, you probably want the Horror Companion too). I'm hoping to run a story arc or two using the Deadlands setting starting in the summer. Hopefully it's enough time to bring me up to speed ;)
But that's okay, as the Deadlands Player's Guide doesn't read so much like an RPG sourcebook but more like an actual guide to the "Weird West". Therein lies half the fun ;)
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I've been following the games produced by Splintered Realms Publishing for a while now. They generally have a few things in common: They're short, have a nice background story, simplified task resolution and a streamlined gaming system. Well, that and the author tends to pull his old products off for sale when he is revising them, so as not to sell old when new is around the corner.
The first title to be revamped is the superhero RPG, which now bears the title Resolute: Legacy. I'm loath to call it a "no frills" type of RPG, because the system is very complete. It is however, art light (which I am fine with, as I've seen superhero art all my life - I know what it looks like) with a single column layout (which reads fine on my iPad). Heck, your whole character sheet can fit on one side of a 3x5 index card. Did I mention everything gets resolved with a single D12? Now that's streamlined.
Want to check out the character generation steps?
- Purchase Abilities. You start with 30 CPs to spend in building your super.
You may spend your points however you desire; however, you may never
put more than half of your total CPs in any one ability. (NOTE: Referees
may decide to begin games with more powerful supers; if this is the case,
the referee will tell you how many CPs you have to build your super).
-
Pick a Moniker. This is your super’s nickname or code name. For some
supers, this is also their true or only name. When Modi, son of Thor is your
given name, you don’t really need a moniker!
-
Decide on a Limitation. Some supers have a limitation. You may elect to
take one limitation, or roll randomly for one. You are not required to take a
limitation, if you’d prefer not to. A limitation gives you bonus character
points at character creation to improve other abilities. (see next page). You
should only take one limitation at character creation.
- Develop a Purpose. You have a primary objective that drives your actions.
Write this as a sentence. Your purpose is quite important; whenever you
take a significant step towards accomplishing your purpose in a scene, you
earn an extra +1 XP for that scene.
As you can see even character generation is pretty streamlined.
Supers is not on the top of my RPG genre list, which is kind of strange as I was a huge superhero comic book reader in my teen and early (and even later) adult years. That being said, if I was going to run a supers game, Resolute: Legacy is the rules engine I would use. It's about as complicated as I'd want it, and seems to handle what it sets out to handle well. Besides, at less than 2 bucks, it's hard to go wrong. ;)
Still, I'll be waiting for Michael to come out with some fantasy and sci-fi conversions of the rules. I'll be jumping on those in a heart beat.
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The Forgotten Outpost is a 16 page adventure from the fine folks at Occult Moon. If you don't know who they are, they are the ones that bring us a weekly dose of Toys For the Sandbox.
This is, to the best of my knowledge, their first full length adventure, as the Toys For the Sandbox series is more encounters, locations and / or plot hooks.
So, how did they do with The Forgotten Outpost? Pretty damn well.
First off is the maps from Matt Jackson. If you don't follow Matt's blog, you really should, as he is a master of the hand drawn maps. These maps are no exception. They are, as always, a work of art.
Next, the adventure itself. As Occult Moon is known to do, they give you multiple plot hooks so you can fit the adventure to your party's needs. It this case, your party should be around levels 3 to 5 (Toys For the Sandbox are level-less).
Oh, and a list of rumors. Can't forget that.
Parts that are to be read to the party are in italics. This doesn't happen all to often, so expect to be putting what the party sees into your own words, which to my mind is usually better than reading from a script anyway.
The outpost, while not huge, should supply your party with a full session (if not a bit more) of game play. The ending has the potential to be a bit open ended, so if you have a sandbox you want to place this in, it should fit fine.
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I've been a fan of Creative Mountain Games ever since Mark put out the 3.5E SRD. This has turned into my SRD bible, if you will.
Creative Mountain Game's latest is 30 Things Can Happen! It's an assortment of random tables to add flavor to your adventures as they are happening. They add the little things that bring life and spontaneity to the world your party is adventuring in.
You get 30 tables broken down by category: While in a City, While in the Country and While Underground. Each table is further broken down by thirds. So, depending on how you look at it, you have 30 tables with 30 entries each, or you have 90 subtables with 10 entires each. Priced at $4.50, you are effectively paying 15 cents a table (or 5 cents a subtable). A fair price in my humble opinion.
This will be one of my go-to resources in my upcoming sandbox style campaign.
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(originally published at tenkarstavern.com)
The Astral Star is the 11th installment in the Toys For the Sandbox series of... not quite adventures, but more like stories hooks and adventure seeds. I believe as I write this, Occult Moon is up to 13 in the series, plus a free "Issue Zero" and a bonus that those that grabbed the freebie in the first 24 hours were eligible to receive. Yep, its a pretty lively series.
The Astral Star takes the series to new heights and new dimensions. This is one that would benefit if you could place some rumors and seeds a few sessions (or longer) in advance, as it would really make for a larger impact on the PCs if it could be successfully pulled off.
The hooks (and twists) are really, really good this time around. With a little work, some could be used to decent effect as seeds to encounters or adventures of your own design. That is the one shame of this series. Six hooks, each with 3 twists gives you 18 possible ways to get your party involved. Since you will only use one, you have 17 that laying there, wishing they were used. I'm already thinking of ways to use a handful of the ones I won't be using in different set ups.
The Astral Star deals with the Astral Plane (not a big surprise there), but I don't want to spoil the major twist here. I really do like it. It's very innovative and can certainly lead to a whole chain of events for your party, either immediately or in the party's future.
Best of the lot so far IMHO. I've liked them all, loved a bunch, but The Astral Star beats them all.
Oh, and I label this "Generic OSR", as it is most certainly drawn from and OSR mindset and gaming history even if there are no stats includ
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I first found Deadlands when it was it's own stand alone system. For all intent and purposes, it was the precursor to the Savage Worlds system.
Now I find myself looking at it through a new lens - Deadlands Reloaded: Marshall's Handbook (Explorer's Edition) for Savage Worlds. In a way, we've come full circle.
I still love the divergent history that is the setting of Deadlands. American Western movies are pretty much our version of Avalon, King Arthur and the rest of the English / Celtic legends. Deadlands starts with that Western assumption, throws in undead and magic, changes some major historical events and gives us a huge amount of awesomeness - if your players like Westerns.
Some folks don't like sci-fi, some don't like fantasy, some don't like westerns and others don't like horror. Deadlands is a fantastical western horror setting (with some steampunkish elements), so it will either hit a lot of buttons for your group or miss a lot. It hits all of the sweet spots for me.
The Marshal's Handbook gives us background and history, the major players, critters, new rules for the setting - pretty much everything you need to get the game moving from the GM's side of the table.
The PDF itself is well bookmarked and hyperlinked. For a PDF coming in over 175 pages, these are pretty much necessities. Heck, they even give permission to print the document for personal use. You can even use layer controls to efficiently print the pages, which is nice.
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Down the Shadowvein is the follow up to AA#1: The Podmaster of the Sinister Shroom, and can be used to follow that adventure or on it's own. All the GM needs to supply is an underground river they can canoe down and a map leading to treasure down river. Its for character levels 3 to 5.
I really wish I could find my copy of PotSS, but it's packed in a box somewhere in storage. Ah well, onward to Down the Shadowvein.
The GM's map (and the Player's map too) is a hex map, inducing the river and adventure locations and passages. It's weird but cool that the underground map is similar to an above ground map, even though the party is going to be thinking "dungeon".
If it reminds me of any classic adventure, it's D1-2, when the party travelled through the underdark. There is much of that feel here, as the random encounters the party may interact with include merchant trains. Merchant trains underground, ya gotta love it. :)
The main encounter areas are mapped out like dungeons, so your players (and you) will be in comfortable surroundings at times. In truth, this plays out (almost) like a sandbox campaign underground, as the players have choices in the directions they will take.
Still, it is not the usual sort of adventure, and it may be awkward for some GMs to run it. It is underground, and most travel will probably be via river, but there are also numerous passages for the party to stumble through.
Depending on how thoroughly the party explores their sandbox, this could take two to the 4 hour sessions to complete. There really is a lot to explore in the two dozen pages in this adventure.
You also get 2 new magic items and 4 new monsters.
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